Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFXI_psf2.rar - 211 "Airship" Ya damn right this kind of stuff is discouraged. Don't even put your name on something like this where the differences are so negligible. If anyone outside the panel compared these two tracks, they'd ROFL. As a posted mixer, I realize you have one conservative track on the site, but this here was absolutely too much like the original. NO Override

Kingdom Hearts - 101 "Dearly Beloved" http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Chrono Trigger (part 2)" (ct-1-02b.spc) Oy, MIDI-rippish beginning for the first 36 seconds with a terribly harp-like synth. Total sound downgrade going for a minimalist approach. Some string pad entered in at :26 to at least add something. Some breakbeat style stuff entered in at :57 and this track is still barren. Finally some new ideas at 1:26, but it was just a slowed doen version of the Chrono Trigger theme thrown on top. Some phasing synths faded in at 2:00. Just seems to be the addition of a new sound every few seconds or so. Too bad the sounds are so poor, and that foundation of "Dearly Beloved" has been taken verbatim instead of rearranged in its own right. Not really gonna keep track or any further additions. Admirable for a first try, but a very weak track otherwise. Head over to the ReMixing forum and figure out how to score better sounds for free, then rearrange the source material in future efforts. This additive approach as is just doesn't fly. NO

Really phony choir and cruddy wind instrument material opening things up. I'm afraid I don't have the original in front of me, but Gray might come through with recognizing the source tune and the level of arrangement. The composition itself was somewhat engaging. BAD lowering of the note pattern of the support instrumentation at 1:36 and again at 2:04. The choir was really muddy and poorly positioned at this point. I liked the direction the composition went after 2:30 though. The execution was lackluster giving how the inhuman the vox and instrumentation sounded, but I liked the ideas there. Head over to the ReMixing forum and get more knowledge on humanizing your sounds before attempting to submit again. As long as the arrangement ideas were there, feel free to work on this further and try again. NO

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Hubbard_Rob/Human_Race.sid - Subtune 4/5 You've gotta listen to 3 minutes' worth of the source to hear all of the sections used in this one. Played it back on VGF42 and knew it was solid. I talked to Slaygon, creator of SLAY Radio, about this track and he said the title loosely translates to "Everybody Stop Wanking". Awesome. This one was a fairly conservative but expansive take on the original material (which was pretty sparse). The drumloop derived from Enigma's "Sadness, Pt. 1" (but not created by Enigma) was recreated by Carlo and beefed up compared to Enigma's own. Good opening up to :09 very loosely derived from the opening 8 seconds of the source tune. Some chanting-like vox rhythms, a phasing synth and ethnic percussion joined in soon after that to fill out the track further. The Enigma drumloop, the bassline, and the source tune on light string pads joined in at :47. Good power in the sounds. The source tune melody entered at 1:26 along with some light acoustic guitar in the background that I wish was more prominent. The atmosphere could be cleaner and more seperated for my tastes, and the lead felt like it had too much reverb, but, overall, the soundfield was full and the energy level was good. Pretty straightfoward coverage going up until 3:00, followed by a move to a new section of the source at 3:12. 3:12 tackled another section of the original with a wind instrument solo, with the bassline joining in at 3:31. I liked the shimmering SFX thrown in there at 3:02 as well. The drum sample at 3:50 cut off too abruptly moving back into the source melody though. Nice rearranged ending section at 4:48 wrapping things up with the bassline, string pad, and phasing synth. Pretty nice overall. I love well done Commodore arrangements that add lots of body to the original SIDtune. When a genre adaptation is well done, it can upgrade a sprase but compositionally strong track by giving it more musical "identity". In other words (i.e. me making up terms), the original track sounds plain and genre-neutral while this arrangement was a great Eurobeat track. djp could articulate my point much better than I could. Definitely glad Carlo submitted this one to further represent the Commodore/European scene, and I thank him again for helping me contact N-Joy to submit his Stormlord mix "Seneca's Marble Pack Edit" to OC as well. I'll continue doing what I can to encourage more Commodore scene submissions from the Remix64 community as there are a lot of stellar arrangers there who have yet to be heard as far as OC goes. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Battle Against a Weird Opponent" (mo2-029.spc) This one played it pretty close to the tempo and composition of the original. It certainly made the source material more energetic and eccentric, but that was on account of the synth and production choices, not any melodic rearrangement. The style was too similar to the original, but most of the ideas were additive, attempting the expansive arrangement route. I liked all of the additions in there though, and as much as I was inititially inclined to flatly go NO. There were several creative support additions, and other parts were absolutely gold, like the wholly original melody from 1:20-1:41 on top of the chorus. Most of the additions felt true to the Earthbound style, though some stuff came across as too random and not working in tandem with the source tune melody, for example 1:02-1:19 and 2:06-2:25. On the plus side none of the additions were repetitive except for the additions on the chorus at 2:26, which was fine. Loads of variation in the additions, but none in the foundation of the track. If this was back in the day, this wouldn't be a problem for me, but I feel like there's gotta be more to it. Does it compare favorably to relatively recent past material where the source tune style and tempo has been kept verbatim yet the composition has been substantially expanded, like Mark Vera's Laser Squad "Mission Recalled" or Makke's Lost Patrol "In the Air Mix"? To me all of the additive elements clicked there, and they don't all click here. That's definitely not because the source tune you chose was "too strange". The track abruptly cut off at 2:51 as well. Anything that could be done to make some of the most prominent additive ideas work more closely (and I suppose I should say logically) with the source would push this over the bar as an additive-approach arrangement. Even "Treehouse of the Ancients" had a great original breakdown that pieced together thematically with the source material; maybe bring in an idea on that level? Damn, really don't wanna do this again. Chris is a hero in the community, no lie. Sorry, man. :'-( NO (borderline/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb3.zip - Track 2 ("World 2 Map") Pretty cool opening, though I didn't like the opening synth appearing at :11. Just a subjective thing, so it's not a hit against the track as far as the vote is concerned. The arrangement itself was alright. The strings at :30 were a decent touch but were way too synthetic sounding, the decays in particular. Some of the compositional ideas with the strings, for example :46-:54, were a little too spastic, but that's fairly subjective. Besides, you had the right idea in general and most the ideas there clicked. New section at 1:17 and I'm hurting a bit on these inhuman strings, because they're seemingly meant to be used in a realistic sounding context. The tambourine was a bit too loud compared to the lead here. Pull it back a bit, perhaps. The drum pattern was a little plodding at 1:35. Good key change at 2:10. Heard what felt like an awkward note at 2:32, and the drop in key at 2:36 was abrupt and sloppy. 2:56 sounded like an unpurposeful skip; if it was intentional, it didn't work well. The foundation of the arrangement was too repetitive (yeah, I know how the original sounds), but overall I felt the composition was definitely over the bar. Just need some refinement on the sounds. I know stuff like Final Fight CD "Adrenaline Rush" got passed a while back having the similar issues as this, but the bar's moved higher than that so I need more refinement here. I could definitely see this getting YESs as is. Good job so far. NO (refine/resubmit)

Too bad Joker's link to the original 404'd. Common sense says the source tune is "Mad Monster Mansion (Interior)" but I also hosted the Exterior & Aquatic versions of Mad Monster Mansion on the FTP for anyone else who's interested. A piano playing the source started things off at :07, followed by a basic beat and some (cool) SFX at :26. The strings in the back filled the space a bit, but it was pretty sparse nonetheless. Production was a bit dull. A VERY thin and inhuman-sounding string joined the background at :46. The percussion/beatwork was still pretty bare. Despite other sounds and effects attempting to fill out the background, the atmosphere was still a bit empty, but it tends to work for the style. To me it sounds like it needs some minor addtions but nothing drastic. The changeup at 1:44 with some xylo axction, I was feeling. The piano chords at 2:02 didn't really harmonize with the xylophone initially, but I needed to listen several times in order to get more accustomed to it. At 2:41 the string sounded really fake again, though I liked the extreme delay on it. It's the same sample Sefiros used in Final Fantasy 8 "Everything = Nothing", so I can definitely say I've heard the sample used more realistically. More than 3 minutes into it, and the heavy string section was a decent change of pace, but the track dragged a bit from 3:20-onward. On the whole, the lead material was lacking heading towards the close; fairly repetitive. The whole thing sounded pretty unwieldy and unfocused on the first go, because I didn't listen to the source first. Give it several listens here to get used to things and take in the atmosphere. A kneejerk reaction to this would be a huge error, so don't make that mistake. The strings were a bit too inhuman and the overall track sounded too sparse and relatively repetitive. Sparse is a subjective description, and for the most part it works for the track anyway, but again, I need a little but more going on than reverb. A little more could be done with this compositionally to keep the end from dragging, but the arrangement was a pass to me. You're definitely right on the line to me, Dave. Scary Res Evil-style shit here; I'm liking it so far, but need a tiny bit more. No problems if this passes whatsoever, as my issues may be too subjective and not shared by the group. Best of luck on the rest of the vote. NO (borderline)

http://sonicveg.digibase.ca/creative/midis/gba/sadv/gba_sadv_sac01.mid - Ice Mountain Zone Act 1 http://sonicveg.digibase.ca/creative/midis/gba/sadv/gba_sadv_tk03.mid - Ice Mountain Zone Act 1 We don't want this kind of stuff at all. 1:49-long is too short/underdeveloped, the track is repetitive, and it's just a copy of the original. Read our rules before you send us submissions, please. "You're too close!" [chokes Wyclef] NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/zelda.zip - Track 47 I recalled this one from VGF59 and was glad to see it make its way to djp's inbox. The source tune entered in at :25 on a delicate French horn, and yea it was good. I'd like to see Gray in particular assess how well the execution was pulled off. It could use some refinement, but I don't need to tell Nicolas how to make his material, cuz his catalog of stuff has been pretty strong overall. All of the arranged material was well-varied and the atmosphere was very relaxed. 1:46-2:42 dragged on a bit, and could have had a bit more going on in terms of the composition, but maybe y'all will love it. The piece as a whole was a bit too quiet for me, but you know how I am, right? Needs to be drastically overcompressed to even be listenable. Seriously though, nothing against the volume as it fit the style and the genre. Though I heard some light popping there, I liked the flute trill at 2:48. That was a nice little touch there before...Oh ho, what's this? That was a VERY pimp transition into some incredibly catchy string, drum & piano rearrangement at 2:58. Wow. Way to breath a lot more life into the piece for the finish! I felt as if the arrangement could have been more active and intricate at times, but had no big qualms. Good enough for the YES.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFXI_psf2.rar - 111 "Rolanberry Fields" Played this one back on VGF60, so I've been looking forward to critiquing it. The opening was pretty conservative with the steel-stringed guitar. Mostly heard additive elements here as opposed to any liberal rearrangement, but this was a nice conservative approach with some personal flair. Some other synth strings came in at :42 but sound very muted and muffly. They're supposed to sound lo-fi but the loud, trebly beatwork was just obscuring everything, so the sound balance needs to be adjusted. The whole track lacks sharpness and clarity, so you better get tips from the ReMixing forum or the VGMix Conservatory on what to do about that. Nothing wrong with the bird SFX, though it ain't birdcussion and it's a bit too loud without serving much of a purpose; sounds like something that should be a lot less prominent. 1:12 reached the chorus and had some decent genre adaptation work. Some trumpet stabs or whatever you would call those were brought in from 1:28-2:10. A bit gratuitous there at points, I think those should have been used more judiciously. The soft pizzicato strings starting at 1:49 didn't always seem to be playing the right notes. By 2:00, the arrangement of the chorus was really dragging. Trim the fat there. The following section at 2:32 with strings had some serious problems once it reached 2:53 as the pizzicato strings, twinkly notes and bassline did NOT harmonize properly up until 3:14. Need a theory guy to help clarify the issue there. Good ideas for rearranging the chorus at 3:36, though the guitar notes generally had the same intensity from note-to-note, which doesn't sound realistic at all. Humanize the performance there. Things got a little too busy at 3:57, bringing in those poorly harmonizing elements on top and around your strings until 4:18. Position the strings more in the forefront and pull the supporting elements back a little there. I really liked the stuttering and fadeout of that synth from 4:17-4:49; perhaps use a similar idea like that earlier on. Reminded me of Fatty Acid's style; maybe y'all should collab sometime. Good ending as well, though fade it out more cleanly, since it doesn't even fade out all the way. You could really trim the fat off some of this, Paul, cuz the arrangement was too long and couldn't support 5:25. Refine or remove some of the needlessly crowded sections (i.e. 2:53-3:14 & 3:57-4:18). Tone the trebly percussion down a bit, and figure out how to get a cleaner atmosphere here and fix the sound balance among your instruments. I kind of joke to myself that Paul sure has the ReMix titling schema down pat, but just needs to the get the rest above the bar. This guy's one to watch though. Once he refines his composition and learns more about production, he has the potential to be a solid contributor. Keep working at it, bro. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://www.dongrays.com/midi/archive/game/d2/d2map09.mid - "Into Sandy's City" Aight, so we have a trance thing going on with some stock sounds. Not particularly groundbreaking, but let's see where it goes. :46 had a decent original rhythm preparing the listener for what I assume is gonna be the intro of the source tune soon. Really not liking the choice for the lead from :46-1:38, as it was in my face 'n shit, but that's generi-trance for ya. 1:13 had some claps enter the background along with some subtle strings. The buildup was quite long for this 4-minute piece but finally the melody arrived at 1:39. Unfortunately, some muddy vox managed to crowd up the soundfield and actually muffle the melody. Those hats gradually getting louder starting at 2:06 were really annoying. Very generic sounds still by 2:35. Nothing very interesting. Sounds like something a beginner Commodore scene arranger could think of, in that this was just a straightforward trance adaptation of the original. Adapted capably, sure, but not very innovative or even interpretive. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 104 "Time's Grasslands - Home World" The opening synth was a bit shrill, but was an acquired taste. Some weak drums entered in at :19 while the stuttering sound supporting the lead synth took over. Very boring transition section from :20-:42. You gotta cut the fat out of this mix and scrap that kind of stuff. At :43 the melody kicked in. The bassline was alright, but the beatwork here was a bit spartan. The beatwork changed at 1:01 into some snares, but they were too simplistic to drive the mix along. There were some good phasing/buzzing sounds in there though to fill up the space a bit more. There was that grating synth on support at 1:22. The instrumentation was still pretty sparse and weak, though I'm glad some effects were present throughout the mix in the attempt the thicken up the atmosphere. Not enough mind you, but certainly a step in the right direction. The chorus arrived at 1:40 and more of these beats and snare shots surrounded the music but didn't gel with it, preventing them from adding anything meaningful to the arrangement composition itself. The really flat transition at 2:21 detrimentally dropped the energy level. Guess it went into a minor key. Change that into something new, please. Nah. Definitely a NO-go. The sounds were thin, and the beatwork here had no texture or power. The arrangement of the actual melody was pretty simplified and conservative. The ending section at 3:28 was a weak way to abruptly end the piece (mostly the fault of that awful synth at 3:40). There weren't many instruments or sounds in play at any given time, leaving the soundfield pretty empty most of the way through. The sound combinations here took some getting used to, but after a few listens the supporting elements in particular sounded a lot more structured and less haphazard, so don't listen to this only once and get thrown off. Truly, it takes a special mix to sound thin but still feel cluttered. Reminds me of the Robo theme mix ambient made a while back that had similar problems. If Majin'll be pissed, he'll just look back on this one way later and wonder why he thought this would genuinely make it as is. You're cool with me of course, Majin, but after getting shit from you about the site recently posting several "shitty" mixes (Shael/Mythril/Fat Man/OverCoat/DCT), I'm surprised you and ambient subbed something that's clearly lacking in a lot of areas and doesn't even compare to the material you yourself criticized. That attitude contrasted with this submission is laughable. All talk if you guys can't bring your A-game. For Majin especially, whom I've heard some excellently made music from and played on my show, I'm kinda surprised considering what he's capable of. Y'all both keep working on your material, though I'd call this a done deal and move onto something else. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/battle~1.zip - Track 20 Some truly ugly, grating synths introing things. They were pretty abrasive, but things finally got underway at :43. Nothing particularly melodic or interesting happening aside from that damn annoying effect that's supposed to be going past some save point or something in the race. Jeez, I'm starting to sound surly as hell now, but this is just getting to me, sorry. Arrangement's basically the same as the source so far. Finally at 1:31 we got something new, but immediately it starts repeating too much instead of developing into anything. [shakes head]. I know the source tune is like that, but geez. Then we sped up at 2:35, and there's still nothing melodic happening. At 3:26 we got some drums and that recurring note pattern. Still nothing major. There weren't enough interpretive ideas here, and the original was way less annoying. Instead of relying on the groove of the original, please interpret the material further next time instead of basically covering it with this downgrade. I give you points for TRYING to interpret the original, but it's not many points. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/tg.rsn - "Title" (tg-1.spc), "Bordeaux" (tg-4.spc) & "Las Vegas" (tg-2.spc) The arrangement was too conservative for me overall, so make it more interpretive and less sickly with medley-itis. Anyway, we're gonna gloss over that and just assess the presentation. Not a bad electric guitar vibe going on here for the first 23 seconds, but the generic, tepid sounds came in soon enough I'm afraid. Oooh, whatever quasi-bass synth that was at :56 really hurt the piece, and when the guitar attempted to do some involved licks, it just sounded very fake on account of it being drowned out. The levels were all over the place at 1:59, but at least the track was louder as a whole. Oy, just some ugly sounds here; the hats were way too loud, there's no solid background instrumentation, and the guitar sounded bad. Decent SFX usage at 2:28 with the car crash though. We aimed to get more intense with "Bordeaux" at 2:37, but the execution was so quiet and weak the whole way through. At least the arrangement was a bit riskier. Bah, again with those crazy hi-hats. Then at 3:10, the drums were way louder & cleaner than the guitar; again the sound balance among your instruments makes no sense. Same with 4:12, what are you doing there? Decent stuff with "Las Vegas" starting at 4:24, but that was partially my love for the theme. The claps in there were so out of place. I liked the guitar there though; it had its genuinely promising moments with that coverage. Considering how bad it was for "Bordeaux", that's saying something. Man, with the guitar being real, you could have fooled me with how poorly this was put together. Head over to the ReMixing & WIP forums and get some serious help dissecting this one. NO

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Tel_Jeroen/Myth_PSID.sid - Subtune 1/3 http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Tel_Jeroen/Myth_Mix.sid - Suntune 1/1 You have to listen beyond 3 minutes of the PSID to finally get all of the sections used in this arrangement. I dunno why you said you had no idea where to get the original from, cuz you had to have gotten it from somewhere. No way you could have recreated the original like that from memory. You even sampled Subtune 2 of the PSID for the female saying "Welcome to Myth". You think we were born yesterday? Don't feel like getting into the details, but the rearranged parts where the melody was different than the original weren't particularly creative, and much of the piece was the original with lo-fi, generic FL stuff over it. If you're truly going for the default sound vibe, this better be the most impressive arrangement ever. I don't mean to be glib as a means of crapping on the piece, but I felt that the FL default stuff didn't work in tandem with SIDtune material and that the arrangement needed to be more interpretive without relying on the foundation of the verbatim original most of the way. Nothing quite overrideable in my opinion, because some additive arrangement ideas were there beyond the simple FL stuff, and some sections of the original were left out, but I could see why someone else would NO Override. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 19 Flying Battery Zone 2 Oh ho! A theme I really like. Got some "Flying Battery bias" here. Didn't like the strings used at :07. The note-to-note movements sounded pretty fake; felt like each note had the same intensity. Otherwise, the first 40 seconds or so were hot. About 1:00 in and the source wasn't being used overtly enough. I could hear it being used VERY quietly with a xylophone-style instrument from :47-1:20. The source tune references were way, way too subtle/understated here. The chorus was used really quietly at 1:46. Some winds came in at 1:57 and the mixing was a bit poor as the chorus by the wind instrument was really obscured by the vox. At 2:13 a little piece from the intro was used briefly again followed by a retread of the material from :47 with the vox underneath it now. The composition felt a little repetitive and directionless from 2:13-2:53, so change things up a bit compared to the first iteration at :47. The beats dropped out again at 2:54 to focus on the vox and ambiance, but this approach throughout the track basically removed most of the arrangement substance as a focus. Use the arranged source tune more prominently please. You don't have to crank it up, but make it a bit more overtly audible. The only other minor issue I had was that some of the sound choices were a bit weak, like the brush taps/hats/whatever those were at 1:58. More important there were the drums entering at 2:54, which, basically used on their own, I felt was a poor way to close the track. Bring some power/texture to them to fill the space more so they don't hurt your ending. Other Js may have some more specific tips/criticisms in mind to add a little bit more texture to the sounds. Aside from some of the mixing/production issues, this was so, so promising arrangement-wise. But you've just gotta hit me with Flying Battery a bit louder so that trying to hear it in this arrangement doesn't leave too many people scratching their heads. NO (borderline/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Quite a few You go to Stanford, eh? Heard of these guys? http://www.institutefunk.com Well, the first thing that you notice is the the production is muffled and down in the dumps. Second thing you notice is that it's General MIDI. I think if you listen to most of the music on the site, you'd realize that this doesn't compare favorably to what we have at all. If you wanna figure out how to get a much better render of your MIDI to MP3, I'd say head over to VGMusic's forums and see what info you can find. Head over to the ReMixing forum here to figure out where to go beyond General MIDI. There are lots of good, free options. Actually a pretty fun medley/arrangement at times, but you need to step up that game, miss. (Ice Cube: "I got ALL the game!" [/Friday]) NO

Gonna run without the source but hope the arrangement criteria is covered. Someone feel free to check that out. Fake sounding strings opened things up. The piano had no performance dynamics at all, and neither did the strings. The tambourine was a bit too loud, so you may want to pull that back. Cool idea to change the flow at :56. The string composition felt pretty aimless from around 1:11-1:23, and that was a bit of a problem throughout most of the piece, as most of the supporting elements felt pretty scattershot. From 1:17 you had some swelling that just managed to drown the other instruments out. Another interesting changeup at 1:39 which I liked though. I liked the piano activity there, but wish all the notes weren't at the same velocity. Alright samples here, but they were used in a lazy manner. This was decent work but was lacking in performance dynamics the whole way and compositional direction for parts of the piece. You did have some good compositional dynamic work with some of the stylistic changes, but that was the main positive I had. Keep working on it, bro. NO

http://www.rareware.com/extra/downloads/tooie/glitter_gulch_mine.mp3 - "Glitter Gulch Mine" The opened up with some pretty plain and generic sounds that didn't do a good job of filling up the soundfield, though that was finally fixed up at :41 with a swirly pad joining in. The note patterns of the backing synths here weren't very melodic or dare I say musical. Man, just some ugly stuff at 1:01. Very poorly put together, unfortunately. The arranged source tune, finally arriving at 1:08, wasn't engaging and the synth choices were grating and subpar. You could barely recognize it as an arrangement of the source material anyway. Already by 1:30, the composition was feeling too repetitive melodically though some little changes here and there were happening. Finally reached the source tune being used overtly at 1:56, but that was poorly executed as well. Not to be mean, but the original's way catchier and sounds way better than this, which dragged on considerably. I'd really hit the ReMixing forum to improve your synth work and post your material to the WIP forum before you submit again. Needs better sounds, more variation, and dynamic contrast; the basics. Gotta crawl before you can walk, bro. NO

word.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ts.rsn - "Hometown" (ts-03.spc) Quite a ponderous mix, one that I had to let marinate for a few weeks, so I don't think one could really make a fair call on this quickly. The first few minutes didn't use the familiar Crysta melody, but rather rearranged the theme by messing around with the motifs of the backing strings & harmonizing winds from the original. Took me a while to really get a grasp on it, but I was impressed when I finally made sense of it. The source melody wasn't even invoked (briefly) until 1:44, which I don't mean to sound negative. I thought it was actually intriguing that the source material could be rearranged this much without using the most prominent part of it. The woodwind made a bad-sounding note transition at 2:27; very flat and unrealistic. Performance realism in the sounds may get criticized more harshly by the others. Nice job not even bringing in the source tune's familiar melody until 3:30. The strings sounded fine on the whole but struggled with realism in some of the note movements. They were serviceable in my opinion. The mix definitely started dragging and sounding too samey beyond the 5-minute mark toward the finish, so you could have afforded to take things in a slightly different direction to keep things from becoming monotonous. The abrupt decay of the string samples at 5:48 exposed the samples. I’ve been hearing too many people in this batch slacking the little details at the very end. BAH. The approach of the arrangement came across to me as divisive, but I'm feeling the unorthodox approach from Alex, primarily rearranging the supporting elements of the source material. Some will bitch about the melody being brought in so late, but I bleh on them. As long as the original was genuinely and recognizably interpreted, which I felt it was, I've got no issue. Though it seemed like I was mostly pointing out flaws, I thought the arrangement & production were solid. I originally thought I would have to compare this with mv's "Aquamarine" but the approaches weren't similar enough in my eyes to merit a side-by-side comparison. Good work, Alex. Best of luck on the rest of the vote. YES

/listens to Unreal - Fifth (Hub5), courtesy of Harmony I knew it. For real, bro, READ THE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: WE DON"T WANT UR MIDI RIPS N SHIT. THIS SOUNDS X-ZACTLY LIEK THE ORIGINAL! NO Override, BOY-EE ----------------------------------------------------- LT: Glad you understood the reasoning for the NO Override. "MIDI rip" isn't used as a literal term in some cases, as it doesn't really matter what the original sound format was. It could be an IT, a MIDI, an NSF, an SPC, a WAV, anything. In short, if you transcribe the original note-for-note with the same timing, instrumentation, etc., you might as well be copying it outright, as it achieves the same result. Hope to see something more interpretive from you down the line.

http://www.noderunner.net/~llin/psf/packs/FFX-2_psf2.rar - 101 "Eternity ~Memory of Lightwaves~" Man, this job is tough. I've gotta say though that I was borderline-YES last time and this unfortunately is a NO. I felt the arrangement ideas were good, but the production was actually a LOT muddier this time around and the sounds weren't significantly refined or improved compared to last time despite that list of changes up there that would indicate otherwise. Like Wing pointed out, the sounds were basically the same throughout the whole 5:45 and you need to change up the sounds and the flow more. Things definitely dragged out, I'm afraid, so figure out how to add substantial dynamic contrast in more points. The new breakdown section at 2:37 was alright, and I appreciated some of the new ideas like the new supporting synth at 4:00, but overall the composition was way too repetitive, something that wasn't helped by making the piece longer. Didn't like the new section at 4:25-4:51 either I'm afraid, as the xylo note patterns you made didn't really work. You may wanna just move onto the next piece with this one, Andrew, but don't be discouraged, bro. zircon had a shitload of rejections (a ton of 'em) before he got posted so don't worry about that. I still think you're heading in the right direction overall and hope that you improve your work. Figure out how to clean up the sound on this one substantially and bring some clarity to the piece and provide more variation. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/top.rsn] - "Good-by Friends" (top-228.spc) [sNES Version] http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/ToP_psf.rar - 228 "Good-bye Friends" [PSX Version] Tales of Symphonia - 424 "Revival" The sound was noticeably washed out and the strings joining in as the lead at :30 only confirmed it. Bring in the higher frequencies for some clarity. There were some very poor sounding note-to-note movements with the strings (e.g. 1:01-1:15). I think the idea will be hit or miss with the group, but I really liked the potential behind the electric guitar being brought in from 1:30-1:58. It initially sounded like a high-pitched string which was a nice touch, though that last note at 1:57 was a sour ending for that section. Cool tambourine stuff throughout the track by the way, but that was a BAD string swell from 2:25-2:28. Bah, more jerky-sounding string movements were there from 2:57-3:12. Cool idea for the piano as the close, though it was a bit abrupt. That's more a subjective thing, so I'm not taking off any points for that. But what I AM taking off points for is subbing this glorified rip for the first 2:25 of the track. It was nearly the same tempo as the SPC, only the instruments were changed, some sections were shifted a little, and some relatively minor embellishments were added. It was basically the same genre and feel as the original. Lame. Dunno why you cited "Revival" as an influence aside from it being more orchestral sounding. Obviously, you need to provide something much more interpretive next time. Work on getting better with using your samples as well by chillin' in the ReMixing forum and continue using the WIP forum for feedback, so someone there can tell you not to submit a near-violation next time. NO

Had a hard time reconciling this with the source tune that you thought it was from, cuz the source itself was so unmemorable (not to mention the fact that you're not quite sure what you actually chose to mix), but that's alright. "Black Rose" is definitely what you decided to mix. The arrangement was too conservative, in my opinion. Sparse but decent opening for the first 55 seconds, though I felt it was a bit too long for a 2:56-long mix. Some of the note movements of the strings were iffy, but didn't quite set off a red flag until the track picked up at :55. Oooh, those were some very unnatural-sounding strings. A downright flimsy and pasted-on beat showed up at 1:15. :'-( The piano breakdown at 1:35 was decent until some poorly used vox abruptly cut in at 1:45. A somewhat cool whistle-like thingamabobber (bah, sue me) arrived at 2:00, but that crappy beat came back as well. I liked the ethnic percussion, on the plus side. I noticed your bassline was too subtle, so punch it up a bit and make it more noticeable. And a show of hands for whoever agrees with me, but there was this shift to acoustic guitar at 2:40 and that was the most interesting thing in the entire mix. WHY did you wait that long to bring it in??? And just to CLOSE the song? What??? Frankly, I'm not The Wingless, so I can't get away with saying this stuff without looking like either an asshole or a weirdo, but that string close was the ultimate cocktease. That was probably the most interesting idea in the whole damn thing and you didn't pimp it out at all. Loads of potential and actually not a bad texture, but that needed to be a bit fuller as well. This was hampered by some poor sample usage for some of the sounds, the orchestral strings, the vox, and that weak-sounding beat in particular. Cruise on over to the ReMixing forum to look into how to improve the performance, then showcase what you've got in the WIP forum and see what kind of feedback the people give ya. Try to do more with the composition side of the arrangement as well. At times, it seemed as if you just took various sections from the original and replaced the instruments with weaker sounds. NO